Unit 1 - Memory

Question 1

What is encoding?

Answer 1

Transforming sensory input into a form which allows it to be entered in the memory.

Question 2

What is storage?

Answer 2

Retaining information in the memory

Question 3

What is retrieval?

Answer 3

Information stored in the memory which can retrieved and used

Question 4

Describe the multi store model of memory

Answer 4

Atkinson and Shiffrin proposed that memory consists of 3 stores: Sensory, ST and LT. Sensory memory is the info you get from your senses. When attention is paid to something in the environment it is then converted to short-term memory.

If any information is not important then it decays or disappears. Once in the short term memory, info can be rehearsed and passed into long term memory.

Question 5

Describe the capacity, duration and encoding of short term memory.

Answer 5

Capacity: 5-9 items
Duration: 18-30 seconds
Encoding: Acoustically

Question 6

Describe the capacity, duration and encoding of long term memory.

Answer 6

Capacity: unlimited
Duration: up to a lifetime
Encoding: Semantically

Question 7

Introduction for WMM

Answer 7

A system involving active processing and short-term storage of information.

Key features include the central executive, the phonological loop and the Visuo-spatial sketch pad.

Question 8

Describe the central executive (WMM)

Answer 8

Has a supervisory function and acts as a filter, determining which information is attended to. It can process information in all sensory forms, directs information to other slave systems and collects responses.

Question 9

Describe the phonological loop (WMM)

Answer 9

One of the slave systems is the phonological loop which is a temporary storage system for holding auditory information in a speech based form. It has 2 parts: the phonological store (inner ear) which stores words you hear, and the articulatory process (inner voice) which allows rehearsal.

Question 10

Describe the visuo-spatial sketchpad.

Answer 10

The 2nd slave system which is a temporary memory system for holding visual and spatial information. It has 2 parts: 1) the visual cache (which stores visual data about form and colour) and 2) the inner scribe (which records the arrangement of objects in the visual field, and rehearses and transfers info in the visual cache to the central executive).

Question 11

Describe the episodic buffer (WMM)

Answer 11

Acts as a ‘backup’ store for information which communicates with both long term memory and the slave system components of working memory.

Question 12

2 strengths of the WMM

Answer 12

1) supported by dual task studies. It is easier to do two tasks at the same time if they use different processing systems (verbal and visual) than if they use the same slave system. For example, participants would find it hard to do two visual tasks at the same time because they would be competing for the same limited resources of the visuo-spatial sketchpad.
2) KF case study. He suffered brain damage which damaged his STM . His impairment was mainly for verbal information and his memory for visual information was largely unaffected. This shows that there are separate STM components.

Question 13

2 limitations of the WMM

Answer 13

1) little is known about how the central executive works. It is an important part of the model but it’s exact role is unclear.
2) the model does not explain the link between working memory and LTM.

Question 14

Describe the Loftus and Palmer procedure (EWT)

Answer 14

45 American students formed an opportunity sample which involved a lab experiment with 5 conditions using an independent groups design.

Participants were shown slides of a car accident involving a number of cars and were asked to describe what happened. They were then asked how fast the car was going when they (hit/smashed/bumped) each other.

Question 15

Describe the Loftus and Palmer findings (EWT)

Answer 15

The estimated speed was affected by the verb used. The verb implied information about the speed, which systematically affected the participants memory of the accident.

Smashed - 41mph
Hit - 34mph

Question 16

Evaluate the Loftus and Palmer study (EWT)

Answer 16

1) the research lacks mundane realism as the video clip does not have the same emotional impact as witnessing a real-life accident and therefore also lacks ecological validity due to the lab conditions.
2) the use of students as participants. They are not representative of the general population, and may be less experienced drivers so therefore less confident to estimate speeds.
3) it’s easy to replicate. This is because the method was a lab experiment which followed a standardised procedure.

Question 17

Describe Age (EWT)

Answer 17

Young children are more likely to yield to social pressure, and as their cognitive abilities are not well developed, they tend to believe in their distorted information and have a greater imagination.

In experimental settings, children tend to change their answer if asked the same question twice. If this happens in real life setting too then this will have important implications for the accuracy of child witnesses.

Question 18

Describe Age study (EWT)

Answer 18

Dodson and Krueger asked college students and older participants to watch a video of a burglary and police chase, and to answer 24 yes/no questions about what they saw. 8 of the questions referred to details not in the video.

Both young and older participants made a similar rate of errors, but the older participants were more confident that their answers were correct.

Question 19

Give one strength of the Dodson and Krueger study.

Answer 19

It has important real life applications. Juries tend to be more influenced by confident eyewitnesses than an uncertain one. This means juries may be more influenced by an older witness than a younger one.

Question 20

Describe the Yuille and Cutshall study (Anxiety)

Answer 20

Loftus set up an artificial scenario where one group of participants witnessed a crime scene involving a knife. The knife was remembered in great detail, but not the face or clothes.

In the control condition, witnessed the same person in a peaceful scene and were able to recognise him when given 50 photos.

Question 21

Describe context reinstatement.

Answer 21

Trying to mentally recreate an image of the situation, including details of the environment, such as the weather, and the individuals emotional state including their feelings at the time of the incident.

Question 22

Describe recall from a changed perspective.

Answer 22

Trying to mentally recreate the situation from different points of view, e.g describing what another witness present at the scene would have saw.

Question 23

Describe recall in reverse order.

Answer 23

The witness is asked to describe the scene in a different chronological order, e.g. From the end to the beginning.

Question 24

Describe report everything.

Answer 24

The interviewer encourages the witness to report all details about the event, even though these details may seem unimportant.

Question 25

2 limitations of the cognitive interview.

Answer 25

1) time consuming to conduct and takes much longer than a standard police interview. Also police officers have to be trained to use this method.
2) some elements of the CI may be more valuable than others. For example, research has shown that using a combination of ‘report everything’ and ‘context reinstatement’ produced better recall than any of the conditions individually.

Question 26

What is memory?

Answer 26

The process of encoding, storing and retrieving information.

Question 27

Strengths of MSM

Answer 27

Early but influential model of memory that many psychologists still find useful today. It has allowed psychologists to construct testable models of memory and provided foundations for later important work. This means that psychologists can continue to study the model to find new ideas and concepts of memory.

Case studies that support (Miller - intact STM, defective LTM)

Question 28

Weakness of MSM

Answer 28

Evidence comes from artificial lab studies which might not reflect how memory works in everyday life. This suggests that no evidence can prove exactly how the model works as it may not be scientifically correct.

WMM recognises a number of different components which suggests STM is much more complex than MSM suggests.

Question 29

Compare the MSM and WMM

Answer 29

WMM focuses on the STM whereas the MSM describes how information is processed from the sensory memory to the LTM.

Question 30

Short Term Study (MSM)

Answer 30

Shown trigrams, and asked to count backwards during intervals of 3,6,9,12,15 or 18s. P’s were then asked to recall the trigram, and repeat.

80% of trigrams were recalled after a 3 sec interval.

Trigrams are artificial and may not reflect everyday memory.

Question 31

Long Term Study (MSM)

Answer 31

Graduates from a high school in US were tracked down after 50 years. 392 graduates were shown photos from a year book, and put in either recognition group or recall group.

60% after 47 years recog
20% after 47 years recall

Question 32

Working Memory Model Study

Answer 32

20 chess players asked to memorise the positions of 16 chess pieces in 10 seconds. While memorising the positions: said random letter strings (CE) or repeated ‘the’ in time with a metronome.

Performed better under the articulatory suppression task (only 1 component)

Central executive was overloading as remembering chess pieces and saying letter strings both require the CE.

Question 33

Easterbrook hypothesis.

Answer 33

Attention is focused on the information central to the source of the anxiety and will be remembered, while peripheral details will not.

Question 34

Cognitive interview support.

Answer 34

Geiselman showed participants videos of violent crime scenes:

Cognitive: 41.1
Standard: 29.4

Question 35

What is misleading information?

Answer 35

Post-event information that can alter the accuracy of the information of the actual event.

Question 36

2 strategies for memory improvement

Answer 36

Organisation ( creating a story or rhyme, chunking)

Elaboration (mind map, shows links between related points)

Question 37

Describe the encoding specificity principal.

Answer 37

Memory is best accessed with appropriate cues:
EXTERNAL (context-dependent memory, location etc)
INTERNAL (mood state-dependent memory, emotions etc)

Question 38

ESP study (Godden & Baddeley)

Answer 38

In a field experiment they used trained SCUBA divers and asked them to learn a list of words on land and underwater. Words recalled in the same setting and opposite setting.

Learning | Recall
LAND WATER
LAND 13.5 8.4
WATER 8.6 11.4